It is a good idea to check your Outlook contacts list every now and then to weed out duplicate entries or to eliminate incorrect, incomplete or outdated information. Outlook provides an easy to use, graphical user interface to help you modify contact personal or company names, cell or business phone numbers, job titles, Web addresses or Instant Messenger addresses.

1. Launch Outlook.

2. Click "Contacts" in the left pane.

3. Scroll down the list of contacts until you find the one you want to modify. You can also type a first name or last name in the search box and then press "Enter" to narrow the list of contacts.

4. Double-click the contact you want to modify. Make any necessary modifications to the contact listing.

5. Click the "Save & Close" button to save your modifications.

Tip

Outlook can import contact lists maintained in other email applications such as Gmail, Thunderbird or Yahoo Mail. Export your non-Outlook email program contact list by using the comma separated value (CSV) format. Use Outlook's Import and Export Wizard to import the CSV file by clicking the "File" tab, clicking "Open" and then clicking "Import."

Warning

If you have Outlook or a compatible email client running on multiple computing devices, use the Internet message access protocol (IMAP) email account settings instead of Post Office Protocol (POP) to save storage space and avoid email access and archive conflicts. The POP protocol downloads email messages to your system and then deletes them from the server. When you try to access the same email account by using another device, the older email is not there. The IMAP protocol does not download and delete email from the server. Your computer, notebook, tablet or smartphone devices all have equal access to the same messages on your mail server.

About the Author

Allen Bethea has written articles on programming, web design,operating systems and computer hardware since 2002. He holds a Bachelor of Science from UNC-Chapel Hill and AAS degrees in office technology, mechanical engineering/drafting and internet technology. Allen has extensive experience with desktop and system software for both Windows and Linux operating systems.